A complete history of the Parthians including their
empire, cities, rulers and contributions to civilization

Parthia
was an ancient land corresponding roughly to the modern region of Khorasan in
Iran. The term is also used in reference to the Parthian empire (247 BC-ad 224).
The first certain occurrence of the name is as Parthava in the Bisitun
inscription (c. 520 BC) of the Achaemenian king Darius I, but Parthava may be
only a dialectal variation of the name Parsa (Persian). Nothing is known of the
history of Parthia while it was part of a satrapy of the Achaemenian Empire. It
was joined to Hyrcania (present Gorgan, Iran) in the time of Alexander the
Great, and the two remained together as a province of the Seleucid kingdom.
During the reigns of Seleucus I (312-281 BC) and Antiochus I Soter (281-261) the
Parni (Aparni) nomads probably moved from Central Asia into Parthia and seem to
have adopted the speech of the Parthians and been absorbed into the settled
population.

According
to tradition (somewhat disputed), the first ruler of the Parthians and founder
of the Parthian empire was Arsaces I, who had been a governor under Diodotus,
king of the Bactrian Greeks, and who revolted and fled westward to establish his
own rule (c. 250-c. 211 BC). By 200 BC Arsaces' successors were firmly
established along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. Later, through the
conquests of Mithradates I (reigned 171-138 BC) and Artabanus II (reigned
128-124 BC), all of the Iranian Plateau and the Tigris-Euphrates valley came
under Parthian control. The Parthians, however, were troubled by nomad attacks
on their northeastern borders as well as attacks by the Scythians. Mithradates
II the Great (reigned 123-88 BC), by defeating the Scythians, restored for a
while the power of the Arsacids. He also defeated Artavases, king of greater
Armenia, whose son Tigranes became a hostage in Parthian hands and was redeemed
only for considerable territory. In 92 BC Mithradates II, whose forces were
advancing into north Syria against the declining Seleucids, concluded the first
treaty between Parthia and Rome. Though beset by insurrections and border wars,
Mithradates II continued to control Iran and northern Mesopotamia until his
death, after which rival dynastic claimants fought for major territories. The
confusion came to an end about 76/75 BC, when the octogenarian king Sanatruces
(perhaps a son of Mithradates I) was set on the Parthian throne by the central
Asian tribe of the Sacaraucae. Yet it was not until Sanatruces' son and
successor, Phraates III (reigned 70-58/57 BC), that the empire was once again in
a fairly settled state.

The
earliest Parthian capital was probably at Dara (modern Abivard); one of the
later capitals was Hecatompylos, probably near modern Damghan. The empire was
governed by a small Parthian aristocracy, which successfully made use of the
social organizations established by the Seleucids and which tolerated the
development of vassal kingdoms. Although not an inventive people, the Parthians
controlled most of the trade routes between Asia and the Greco-Roman world, and
this control brought them great wealth, which they used on their extensive
building activities.

The
feudal and decentralized structure of the Parthian empire may help to explain
why, though founded on annexation and perpetually menaced by hostile armies both
in the east and in the west, it never took a strong offensive after the days of
Mithradates II. Parthia tended to remain on the defensive and even in this role
was frequently lacking in energy. The wars between Parthia and Rome therefore
were initiated not by the Parthians--deeply injured though they were by the
encroachments of Pompey--but by Rome itself. Rome considered itself obliged to
enter upon the inheritance of Alexander the Great and, from the time of Pompey,
continually attempted the subjection of the Hellenistic countries as far as the
Euphrates River and had ambitions to go even farther eastward. With this
objective, Marcus Licinius Crassus, the Roman triumvir in 54 BC, took the
offensive against Parthia; his army, however, was routed at Carrhae the
following year. After this battle Mesopotamia was regained by the Parthians,
but, apart from the ravaging of Syria (51 BC), the threatened Parthian attack on
the Roman Empire never materialized. For more than two centuries, Rome, for its
part, occasionally pressed the Parthians and supported one or another claimant
to the Parthian throne. After the reign (c. Ad 51-80) of Vologeses I, there came
a period of great disturbances in the history of Parthia, during which at
certain times there were two or more kings who reigned concurrently. The Roman
emperors Trajan (in 115-117) and Septimius Severus (in 198) penetrated deep into
Parthian territory, and these and other foreign invaders appear to have crippled
the Parthian kingdom. Finally, in southern Iran the new dynasty of the
Sasanians, under the leadership of Ardashir I (reigned 224-241), overthrew the
Parthian princes, ending the history of Parthia.

The
Parthian period.

The
coming of the Parthians changed Mesopotamia even less than the establishment of
the Seleucid kingdom had, for as early as the middle of the 2nd century BC local
dynasts had proclaimed their independence. There is no evidence indicating
whether the cities of Mesopotamia surrendered piecemeal or all at once or
whether they submitted voluntarily or after fighting. In any case, Seleucia was
treated better by the Parthians than it had been by the Seleucids, and the local
government retained its autonomy. Parthian troops did not occupy Seleucia but
remained in a garrison site called Ctesiphon near Seleucia; it later grew into a
city and replaced Seleucia as the capital. In Characene in southern Mesopotamia
a Seleucid satrap with an Iranian name, Hyspaosines, issued coins about 125 BC,
a sign of his independence; the actual date for this may have been earlier. He
changed the name of the city Antiochia on the lower Tigris to Spasinou Charax,
meaning "The Fort of Hyspaosines," and made it his capital. All the
coins issued from his capital have Greek legends. His troops moved north and
occupied Babylon and Seleucia probably sometime in 127 BC, when the Parthians
were fighting nomadic invaders in the eastern part of their territory. His rule
there must have been short, however, for the Parthian governor of Babylon and
the north, Himerus, was back in Seleucia and Babylon by 126. Himerus could not
have been a rebel, since he struck coins in the name of the Parthian rulers
Phraates II and Artabanus II, both of whom were killed in fighting in eastern
Iran. Himerus abused his power and is said to have oppressed the cities of
Mesopotamia, plundering them and killing their inhabitants. Cuneiform documents
from Babylon stop after this date, indicating that the city did not survive the
depredations of Himerus. He vanished, however, and Parthian sovereignty was
restored by the ninth Arsacid king, Mithradates II, who came to the throne about
124 BC; he was the son of Artabanus II. Mithradates II recovered all Mesopotamia
and conquered Characene, over striking coins of Hyspaosines and driving him from
his capital in 122 or 121 BC. By 113, if not earlier, Dura-Europus on the
Euphrates was in Parthian hands. In 95 BC the Armenian Tigranes II, a hostage at
the court of Mithradates, was placed on the throne of Armenia by his Parthian
overlord, and the small kingdoms of northern Mesopotamia--Adiabene, Gordyene,
and Osroene--gave allegiance to Mithradates. Mithradates II died about 87 BC,
although he may have died earlier, since the period after 90 BC is dark and a
usurper named Gotarzes may have ruled for a few years in Mesopotamia. During the
reign of Mithradates II the first contacts with Rome, under Lucius Cornelius
Sulla, were made, and portents of future struggles were evident in the lack of
any agreement between the two powers. Sulla was sent to the east by the Roman
Senate to govern Cilicia in Anatolia. In 92 BC Orobazes, an ambassador from
Mithradates II, came to him seeking a treaty, but nothing was concluded, since
instructions from Rome did not include negotiations with the Parthian power.

Tigranes
II took advantage of struggles between several claimants to the Parthian throne
to expand Armenian territory into Mesopotamia, and the small states in the north
gave him their allegiance. It was not until 69 BC, when the Roman general Lucius
Licinius Lucullus captured Tigranokerta, Tigranes' capital, that Mesopotamia
returned to Parthian rule. Thereafter wars between the Romans and the Parthians
were to dominate the political history of Mesopotamia.

The
Parthians left the local administrations and rulers intact when they conquered
Mesopotamia. According to Pliny the Elder (Natural History VI. 112) the Parthian
empire consisted of 18 kingdoms, 11 of which were called the upper kingdoms (or
satrapies), while 7 were called lower kingdoms, meaning that they were located
on the plains of Mesopotamia. The center of the lower kingdoms was ancient
Babylonia, called Beth Aramaye in Aramaic, and it was governed directly by the
Parthian ruler. In the south was Characene, while to the northeast of Ctesiphon,
which had supplanted Seleucia as the Parthian capital, was Garamea, with its
capital at modern Kirkuk. Adiabene had Arbela as its capital, and farther north
was a province called Beth Nuhadra in Aramaic, which seems to have been governed
by a general who was directly responsible to the Parthian king, because this
province bore the brunt of Roman invasions. Nisibis was the main city of the
desert area of Arabistan, but at the end of the Parthian period the desert
caravan city of Hatra claimed hegemony over this area. There were other
principalities in the northwest: Sophene, where Tigranes' capital was located;
Gordyene and Zabdicene (near modern Çölemerik in eastern Turkey), located to
the east of Sophene; and Osroene, with its capital Edessa (modern Urfa, Tur.),
which lay inside the Roman sphere of influence. Rule over so many small kingdoms
gave Mithradates II the title "King of Kings," also borne by later
Parthian rulers.

The
defeat of the Roman legions under Marcus Licinius Crassus by the Parthians at
the Battle of Carrhae (Carrhae is the Roman name for Harran) in 53 BC heralded a
period of Parthian power and expansion in the Middle East, but the tide turned
under Mark Antony in 36-34 BC, and thereafter the power structure in the east
remained volatile, with the two great states, Rome and Parthia, contending for
predominance in the region. Armenia was a perennial bone of contention between
the two powers, each of which sought to put its candidate on the throne.

Parthian
rule was not firm over all Mesopotamia; thus, for example, during the reign of
Artabanus III (AD 12-38) the Jewish brigands Asinaeus and Anilaeus set up a free
state north of Ctesiphon that lasted 15 years before it was overcome by the
Parthians. With the end of cuneiform records and with the attention of classical
sources turned to the wars between the Romans and the Parthians, information
about internal affairs in Mesopotamia becomes almost nonexistent. Hellenism
continued to flourish, for many Parthian kings had the epithet
"Philhellene" placed on their coins, but during the last two centuries
of Parthian rule Greek influences declined in favor of Iranian ones, while
central authority suffered from the usurpations of powerful nobles and local
kings. From coinage it is known that the city of Seleucia revolted against
central control at the end of Artabanus' reign and maintained its independence
for a number of years. Peace was broken by the Roman emperor Nero, who sought to
put his client on the throne of Armenia, but, after several years of conflict,
peace was arranged in 63. Vologeses I (c. AD 51-80) founded the city Vologesias,
near Seleucia, as his capital, but the whole area (including Ctesiphon and
Seleucia) became an urban complex called Mahoze in Aramaic and Al-Mada'in in
Arabic; both names mean "The Cities."

Internal
rivalries in the Parthian state gave the Romans an opportunity to attack, and
control over Armenia was the casus belli for the Roman emperor Trajan's advance
into Mesopotamia in 116. Adiabene, as well as the entire Tigris-Euphrates basin
of northern Mesopotamia, was incorporated as a province into the Roman Empire.
Trajan advanced to the Persian Gulf, but he died of illness and his successor
Hadrian made peace, abandoning the conquests in Mesopotamia, although client
states remained.

The
second century of the Common era was a dark period in Parthian history, but it
was a time of growth in wealth and influence of the caravan cities of Palmyra,
Hatra, and Mesene (formerly Characene, situated at the confluence of the Tigris
and Euphrates). Armenia continued to be a bone of contention between the two
great powers, and hostilities occasionally flared up. In 164-165 the Roman
general Gaius Avidius Cassius captured the capital cities Ctesiphon and
Seleucia, but an epidemic forced the Romans to retreat and peace was restored.
Returning soldiers spread the disease throughout the Roman Empire, with
devastating consequences. The terms of peace favored the Romans, who secured
control of Nisibis and the Khabur River valley. The next great war was the
invasion of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus to punish the Parthians, who had
supported his rival Pescennius Niger and had annexed some territory in
Mesopotamia in return for their support. Severus took and sacked Ctesiphon in
198. Because the devastated countryside contained no supplies for the Romans,
they were soon compelled to retreat. A siege of Hatra in 199 by Severus failed,
and peace was made. Conflict between two claimants to the Parthian throne,
Vologeses IV or V and Artabanus V, gave the Roman emperor Caracalla an excuse to
invade Adiabene, but in 217 he was assassinated on the road from Edessa to
Carrhae, and the Romans made peace. The end of the Parthian kingdom was near,
and the advent of the Sasanians brought a new phase in the history of
Mesopotamia.

Parthian
rule brought little change in the administration and institutions of Mesopotamia
as it had existed under the Seleucids, except for a general weakening of central
authority under the feudal Parthians. The Parthians instituted a new era,
beginning in 247 BC, but it paralleled rather than replaced the Seleucid era of
reckoning, and the Parthian vanished at the end of the dynasty. As far as can be
determined, Hellenism was never proscribed under the Parthians, although it grew
weaker toward the end of Parthian rule. From archaeological surveys around Susa,
located in the kingdom of Elymais in modern Khuzestan, and from the Diyala plain
northeast of Ctesiphon, it seems that the population of the land increased
greatly under the Parthians, as did trade and commerce. The coinage of the later
Parthian rulers became more and more debased, probably as a result of the many
internecine wars and the lack of control by the central authority. Local rulers
also issued their own coinages in Persis, Elymais, Mesene, and elsewhere.

Changes
took place in the demography of Mesopotamia under the Parthians, and perhaps the
most striking development among the population was the increase of Arab
infiltration from the desert, which resulted in Arab dynasties in the oasis
settlements of Palmyra and Hatra. Similarly, an influx of Armenian settlers in
the north changed the composition of the local population. After the fall of the
Temple of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70, many Jews fled to Mesopotamia, where
they joined their coreligionists; Nehardea, north of Ctesiphon, became a center
of Jewish population. Naturally also many migrants from the east came to
Mesopotamia in the wake of the Parthian occupation. With many merchants from
east and west passing through or remaining in Mesopotamia, the population became
more diverse than it had previously been.

During
the Parthian occupation the ancient religion and cults of Mesopotamia came to an
end and were replaced by mixed Hellenic and Oriental mystery religions and
Iranian cults. Local Semitic cults of Bel, Allat, and other deities flourished
alongside temples dedicated to Greek gods such as Apollo. The sun deity Shamash
was worshiped at Hatra and elsewhere, but the henotheism of the ancient Middle
East was giving way to acceptance of universalist religions, if the prevalent
view cannot yet be called one of monotheism. In Mesopotamia, in particular, the
influence of Jewish monotheism, with the beginning of rabbinic schools and the
organization of the community under a leader, the exilarch (resh galuta in
Aramaic), must have had a significant influence on the local population. Toward
the end of the reign of Artabanus III, the royal family of Adiabene converted to
Judaism. In the first two centuries of the Common era, Christianity and various
baptismal sects also began to expand into Mesopotamia. So far no Mithraeums
(underground temples for the worship of the god Mithra), such as existed in the
Roman Empire, have been found in Mesopotamia, except at Dura-Europus, where
Roman troops were stationed. Many local cults and shrines, such as that of the
Sabians and their moon deity at Harran, however, continued to exist until the
Islamic conquest. Parthian Zoroastrianism reinforced local Zoroastrian
communities in Mesopotamia left from the time of the Achaemenians, and one of
the Gnostic baptismal religions, Mandaeanism, which is still in existence, had
its beginning at this time. Although Christian missionaries were active in
Mesopotamia in the Parthian period, no centers, such as the one established
later at Nisibis, have been reported, and it may be supposed that their activity
at first was mainly confined to Jewish communities.

Archaeological
evidence indicates that the Parthians had a more marked influence on art and
architecture. Local schools of art flourished, and at first Greek ideals
predominated, but in the last two centuries of Parthian rule a "Parthian
style" is evident in the art recovered from Mesopotamia and other regions.
Whereas Achaemenian and Sasanian art are royal or imperial and monumental,
Parthian art, like Seleucid art, can be characterized as "popular."
Parthian works of art reflect the many currents of culture among the populace,
and one may say that it is expressionist and stylized, in contrast with Greek
and Roman naturalistic or realistic art. The characteristics of Parthian art in
Mesopotamia are total frontality (i.e., the representation of figures in full
face) in portraits, along with an otherworldly quality. In Middle Eastern art
from previous periods, figures were almost always shown in profile. Another new
feature of Parthian art is the frequent portrayal of the "flying
gallop" in sculpture and painting, not unexpected in view of the importance
of cavalry and mounted archers in the Parthian armies. Likewise, Parthian
costume, with baggy trousers, became the mode over much of the Middle East and
is portrayed in painting and sculpture. In architecture the use of ayvans
(arches in porticoes) and domed vaults is attributed to the Parthian period;
they may have originated in Mesopotamia. Parthian art influenced that of the
Nabataeans in Roman territory, as it did others throughout the Middle East.

Parthian
was an Iranian language written in the Aramaic alphabet. It had an enormous
number of words and even phrases that were borrowed from Aramaic, and scribal
training was necessary to learn these. Syriac, being a Semitic language with
emphasis on consonants, evolved several alphabets based on the Aramaic alphabet.
The Aramaic alphabet was better suited to Syriac than to Parthian phonology.
Parthian was therefore difficult to read and was mainly used by scribes or
priests for official or religious writings.

The
largest lacuna is in literature from the Parthian period. The largely oral
literature of the Parthians, famous for their minstrels and poetry, does not
seem to have found many echoes in Mesopotamia, where the settled society
contrasted with the heroic, chivalric, and feudal society of the Iranian nomads
that continued to dominate Parthian mores even after they had settled in
Mesopotamia. Nonetheless, the end of the Parthian period saw the beginning of
Syriac literature, which is Christian Aramaic, and some of early Syriac
literature, such as the "Song of the Pearl," contains Parthian
elements. In the realm of language, rather than literature, the writing of
Aramaic changes to Parthian in the 2nd century AD, as can be seen from a
bilingual (Greek and Parthian) inscription on a bronze statue from Seleucia
dated AD 150-151. It tells how Vologeses III defeated the king of Mesene and
took over the entire country. After this period one no longer speaks of Aramaic,
but of Parthian and Syriac written in a new cursive alphabet.

The
end of the Parthian Empire (AD 162-226)The 40 years' peace was succeeded by
almost uninterrupted hostilities with Rome, with varied success, Iran remaining
more vulnerable because of the exposed position of its capital.

The
reign of Vologases II (105/106-147?) and especially that of Vologases III
(148-192), the latter not having to dispute the throne with a pretender, could
by their length be a sign of a certain stability the country might have
experienced. But underneath the apparent calm the intrigues continued, with Rome
receiving embassies from the Hyrcanians, the Bactrians, and doubtless from the
Kushans.

A
new clash with Rome came in 161, this time upon the initiative of Vologases III,
who considered himself strong enough to attack. He occupied Armenia, crossed the
Euphrates, and invaded Syria, which for two centuries had not seen Parthian
cavalry. And, although the country had been Roman since the time of Pompey, the
Syrian population, which included Jews driven from Palestine by the Romans,
received the Iranians as liberators. The situation became so serious that Lucius
Verus, co-emperor with Marcus Aurelius, was dispatched to the east with strong
reinforcements taken from the fronts on the Danube and Rhine. The Romans retook
Armenia (163) and succeeded in a campaign similar to Trajan's: Dura-Europus was
taken and remained Roman until its destruction by the Sasanids; Seleucia on the
Tigris, despite the welcome it reserved for the Romans, was sacked; and in 164
or 165 for the second time Ctesiphon fell into the hands of Romans, who razed
the royal palace.

But
once more success was not continuous. The Roman army had come from Armenia and
had crossed through Azerbaijan, known even today as a country where plague is
endemic. Contaminated, the Roman army was sorely tried by disease and obliged to
retreat, but not definitively. Lucius Verus, repeating his campaigns in Armenia
and northern Mesopotamia, inflicted heavy losses on the Parthians.

The
tensions between the two states did not diminish when Vologases IV (191-208/209)
supported a pretender (Niger) against the emperor Septimius Severus. The latter
became emperor in 193 and began operations that permitted him to occupy first
northern and then southern Mesopotamia and, for the third time in a century,
Ctesiphon.

The
Parthians in their retreat adopted a scorched-earth policy. As under Trajan, the
starving Roman army went back up the Tigris, failed in its attempt to take
Hatra, and left the country.

Vologases
V, son of the previous king, succeeded him (209-222), and his throne was
contested from 213 by another prince, Artabanus V (213-224), who was able to
maintain himself thanks to the support of the kingdom of Media (Table 1). A new
invasion of Mesopotamia took place under Caracalla, the casus belli being the
refusal of Artabanus V to give Caracalla his daughter in marriage. The young
Roman emperor dreamed of rebuilding Alexander's empire but succeeded only in the
pillage of Media and the destruction at Arbela of the hypogea of the Arsacid
kings, whose bones he scattered.

The
Parthian reply was harsh. Artabanus V avenged himself by invading the Roman
provinces and destroying several cities. Rome sued for peace. Artabanus'
conditions were too hard and were refused. Hostilities were taken up again and
turned in favor of the Parthians, who obtained such a success that the emperor
Macrinus paid 200,000,000 sesterces to make peace.

Since
208 Papak (Babak), a lesser prince of Persis, had been preparing a revolt, which
his son Ardashir finally declared openly. A battle took place between him and
Artabanus V in 224; the Parthian was killed, and the throne of Iran passed into
the hands of the Sasanids, a new national dynasty, originally from Fars, cradle
of the Achaemenids.

The
Iran of the Parthians, a region strategically crucial for international
commerce, maintained open roads, created cities, and encouraged exchanges that
were the lifeblood of this great nation stretching from the portals of China and
India to the Roman Empire. Tolerant in religion, it was Parthia that contributed
to the dissemination of Buddhism to China, where a Parthian prince spread the
word of Buddha near the middle of the 2nd century AD. For nearly half a
millennium Parthia pursued its great ambition to recover the western provinces
of the Achaemenids. An empire of the middle, between Rome on the west and the
Kushans on the east, undermined by internal weaknesses, Parthia finally
succumbed, leaving its great dreams to its successors, the Sasanids.